Creative Life Midwife

Inspiring Artistic Rebirth

Start Fresh: Your Mind – Wide Open – at the Marketing Table

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Many times we arrive at a conversation with a strong notion of the direction we believe the conversation ought to take.

This blocks out the chance for magical marketing ideas and future practices to burst forth.

  1. Open your mind, allow space for surprises – and abundance – to take form.
  2. Instead of listening for a break in the conversation so that you may say what you have said many times before, give yourself room to contribute differently. 
  3. Acquaint yourself with the power of using Beginner’s Mind: in doing so, you will learn to trust your intuition, become more creative and leave space for the genius who is waiting for the know-it-all within you to step aside.

How to practice this:

When you read something new, like this blog post, read a section and then take five minutes of quiet to allow the message to settle in without allowing your intellect to chase it around, to “understand what it means.”

When you are in a conversation with someone and they say something – especially if it triggers a specific thought in you – simply respond with, “Tell me more about that…”

Playfully experiment with this notion and then come back and let me know how it went. Then think how it may apply to your marketing.

What haven’t you thought of using in your marketing before that you will now? 

Get ready because we are about to start done a really fun, fruitful path: storytelling for marketing with your one page marketing plan.

I’m so excited!

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach and multi-creative known for her high energy, inspirational and simple to apply methods for writers and artists to bring more success into their small businesses and creative projects. To request your free transformational creative life coaching session, please make your request here now.

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What single significant question will help you achieve marketing results?

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What is the single most important question an entrepreneur starting with a fresh marketing plan ought to practice asking?

What is the single most important question to ask potential clients when you start marketing your creative business? It is so simple - and signicant.

It is such a simple question.  Itmay be used in a variety of circumstances and is not intimidating at all – especially when practiced regularly and in general conversation.

Are you ready?

The question is…

"Who do you know who...?" creates associations, opens infinite possibilities, paves the way for collaboration and invitation.

“Who do you know who…..”
or marketing my work I might say, “Who do you know who loves books,” “who enjoys making art with books” “who enjoys journaling” “who might be interested in doing a journaling challenge next month” “who might enjoy meeting more creatives in town for networking and fun”?

“Who do you know who…..” consider the sorts of “who”s you are looking for in your business and then, start asking.

Who doesn't want to feel valued? Who doesn't want to be seen as an expert? Affirm others by acknowledging their depth of experience.

Does your heart start fluttering when you think about asking people… for any sort of anything, even something as innocuous as “Who do you know who enjoys going to Amestoy’s?”

Our question invites people to collaborate: it encourages people to reach into themselves and back out to you AND it encourages a continued mutually beneficial relationship.

When we ask people for their opinions we are actually giving them a huge jolt of positivity. We are instantly making them an expert. We are saying, “Your opinion is valuable to me!” and “I noticed your expertise and I would enjoy talking to you more about (whatever it is we are both interested in.)

“Who do you know who…” opens you to more abundance through a very basic relationship marketing technique.

Your question brings so much more than it looks like at the outset. Mindful use of "Who do you know who..." opens abundance in immeasurable ways.

Who will you try it with first?

Julie Jordan Scott says: This is what I crave for you: soulful creativity, aliveness in your passionate productivity, and a deeper sense of knowing how you belong in the world so that together we will be able to create a context for the rest of your life via your next book or your next workshop or simply your next day, week, month or year.

The people who named me “Creative Life Midwife” found words and paint and laughter and flexed their courage muscles on the way to a deeper satisfaction in their daily lives via new blogs, books, webinars and friendships – just to name a few. Contact me now for your complimentary Transformational coaching conversation.  Click here to complete the request form now.  

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Marketing Your Creative Business: One Step at a Time

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Before we continue with our next conversation about effectively marketing your creative small business while having a great time, let’s pause to look at a possible process a creative entrepreneur may go through on the way to solopreneur success:

– Marianne makes a product

– She is so happy, rejoicing “This is so great, this is so fun!”

– Realization: Marianne (and you as well) asks, “Now, how do you create a long line of people who want to get what I’ve got and be financially sustainable for the long haul?”

– Next realization, “Oh, and I also have the honor and privilege of being both maker and marketer and PR person and the many other tasks that are a part of running a small, creative home based business… (through the ups and downs and in-betweens.)

We’re taking what is often called an “inside-out” approach here.

Yesterday, we talked about purpose and passion – which are internal “being” aspects of creating our marketing and business success.

The other side of the BEING is the action we take as a result of our being.

Barbara Walters reminds us, “One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.”


Today, our task is to be sure we stay in alignment with our purpose and passion while we simultaneously begin to take steps into our marketing success.


This isn’t a microwave making popcorn, this is like our raspberry teabag, slowly steeping and changing clear water into a glorious shade of crimson while we watch it happen and taste for the exact flavor that makes our hearts respond.


One way of taking this on is to read the prompts through jotting notes and getting the feel for where you are going and then re-visiting them after a few days and doing a more thorough job with the prompts, deepening them – yes, like the tea.


1. Look over your notes from yesterday’s exercise. If this is your first time here, yesterday’s exercise may be found at this link.

2. Consider the places and spaces you enjoy hanging out and spending your time. Are the people you listed from yesterday there, too?

3. Practice saying this phrase, perhaps slightly different but with the same meaning, “Do you know anyone who would be interested in….” (don’t mention your business at this point. It is one step at a time, one phrase at a time, one little step at a time.

4. If you are feeling at all icky from only saying “Do you know anyone who would be interested in…” it is time to investigate your relationship with what it means market a product. You could, after all, be saying. “Do you know anyone who would be interested in staying in an empty villa at the beach next weekend?”

5. My bet is what you’re up to is as interesting and in the long run, has more of a positive spin than the weekend at the beach. Sometimes when I get my blood pressure taken, I actually picture the beach. Perhaps for you, when you think about marketing or sales, do the same thing.


6. Follow up and take action on yesterday’s prompts – remember?

• Who did you want to reach with your message when you first started your business? Action Step: Circle three specific names or classifications of people you will reach out to next about your offerings.


• What was it that excited you specifically about your message and the people you would reach? Action Step: Take five minutes to close your eyes and remember what excited you. Remember an incident that reinforces this positive association.


• What story(ies) do you have about your business that move your emotions when you tell them? Action Step: This is the “what happened next” phased after the positive association – now, what happened next, as a result of the positive aspects of your business.


7. Applaud yourself for taking aligned action and getting additionally clear on where your plan is taking you AND ACTING in that direction If you have questions or would like to schedule a transformational coaching session so we might discuss any or all of these steps, please click here to go to the request page on the website. 


With Passionate Gratitude,

Julie JordanScott
PS – Leave me a comment if you have ideas or thoughts or anything at all… and follow me on my social media accounts listed above, too, so we may connect in any of the places you are most likely to hang out! Let’s make your creative small business a rousing success in the weeks and months ahead. You deserve it!

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Let’s Have Fun with the Seed of Your Marketing Success

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The foundation of your Creative Business Marketing contains the same seed that urged you to start your creative business.

For many of us, the starting point is passion. For me, the passion that stirred me was writing. I’ve ben revisiting one of the most influential books I have read for creatives, “Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Rilke. There is literally gold dust on every page.

When you read this quote, I request one slight shift – if you are not a writer, I urge you to exchange the word “write” with whatever you create in your business. The original looks like this “Search for the reason that bids you to write; find out whether it is spreading out its roots in the deepest places of your heart.” Now for you it may read like this: “Search for the reason that bids you to sew…” or “Search for the reason that bids you to sing…” or “Search for the reason that bids you to give talks to elementary school groups…”

Herein lies your personal business gold: not that you “have to” write a book to as a business card; not that you “must” have those branding colors just right to make money on Instagram; not that “without working 20 hours a day on my crochet projects I won’t be a success”.

I’m not talking about that and I am NOT talking about what some people call “Your Why”.

I’m asking you to look deeper.

I’m asking you to go beyond what you’ve done in the past and seek the call of your heart to this business – your purpose, your mission, your vision – and use that purpose to set your marketing aim.

Your aim, sometimes called a goal, is setting your “abundance in motion.”

Your purpose – with your passion as the fuel – sets your abundance in motion for your sustainable, successful creative business.

So – with that in mind – your task today is to remember back when you had this inkling of an idea. You may start the process with free flow writing and journaling your responses to these questions. Take only up to five minutes at first to get your process moving.

  • Who did you want to reach with your message when you first started your business?
  • What was it that excited you specifically about your message and the people you would reach?
  • What story(ies) do you have about your business that move your emotions when you tell them?

So this is our starting point: Your passion stirs your purpose. Noticing when and how and what stirs your passion will take you one step closer to the overall aim of your work and from there, your most effective marketing will be borne.

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach who loves challenging herself and those she works with to continually seek new methods of inspiration, to allow oneself to be delighted and surprised and to wake up, nurture, encourage and grow your inner artist, genius, explorer and best self daily.

Julie JordanScott is a CreativeLife Coach and multi-creative known for her high energy, inspirational and simple to apply methods for writers and artists to bring more success into their small businesses and creative projects. To request your free transformational creative life coaching session, please make your request here now.

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Have Fun While Marketing?

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We creative business owners and solopreneurs have the dream life, right?

We’re creating a product or service that delights us and inspires others and we have the joy of bringing our products and services to market and we also – have the joy of marketing said product or service in order to make our efforts sustain us financially, emotionally and… in whatever way our vision carries us.

Many of us, myself included, get so excited in the making, we forget the significance of the marketing in bringing us the freedom we seek as creative entrepreneurs.

Our aim for this series is to combine the fun of making – creating visual or healing art and more –  with financial abundance through making marketing another aspect of our creativity in a way that excites, delights and expands our hearts almost as much as our crafting, writing, sculpting, performing or… fill in your blank here… does.

I will come to you for the next 30 days with a short video and a blog post with suggestions, techniques, questions and exercises for you to playfully experiment with as you create your own marketing plans and campaigns. With the holidays right around the corner, doesn’t your bottom line – and your future success – deserve some passionate focus on your marketing efforts?

I’m so exciting to come alongside you as we see your business thrive – through creative marketing adventures to match your uniquely you making.

The list of each daily post will be below my PS – Visit as you may – lots of valuable information is here for you to insure your marketing success as a creative entrepreneur.

With Passionate Gratitude,

Julie JordanScott

If you missed our other blog posts, here is a listing for you. Before you leave, please take a moment to follow me on social media (links are above) and take advantage of the free resources I’m offering as we go along on this particular adventure.

Day 2: The Seeds of Your Marketing Success

Day 3: One Step at a Time

Day 4: The Most Important Question

Day 5: Beginner’s Mind

Day 8: Storytelling and Marketing 



PS – Leave me a comment if you have ideas or thoughts or anything at all… and follow me on my social media accounts listed above, too, so we may connect in any of the places you are most likely to hang out! Let’s make your creative small business a rousing success in the weeks and months ahead. You deserve it!

Julie JordanScott is a CreativeLife Coach and multi-creative known for her high energy, inspirational and simple to apply methods for writers and artists to bring more success into their small businesses and creative projects. To request your free transformational creative life coaching session, please make your request here now.

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Open the Gift of Your Future in Your Present Moment, Today

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This week I want to be aware of those moments that may seem to be wrapped in insignificance and yet when the gift of the moment is unwrapped, we discover a nugget of gold that continues to radiate and shine long into the future.

This awareness started with a question, “What if that conversation didn’t happen?”

I was reading a note I started to write yesterday. A note I never completed. A note that just sat here in my unpolished gem file – waiting for me to take action (or not) with it.

I wrote once again about the most important conversation I had in 2017.

It was a completely random conversation with a stranger. It clearly didn’t happen within a context of deep personal history and connection. It happened because I was being fully myself in a moment of time when an unsuspecting stranger didn’t realize he needed exactly the medicine my “fully-myself-ness” offered.

His words and actions allowed me to see myself differently.

“I want to hear what you’re saying,” he said, and turned off the radio so he wouldn’t be distracted.

I’m accustomed to going about my day, taking care of my kids, showing up for my friends as best as I can, making contributions as best I can and my perception of myself is often one of invisibility.

That one conversation has lifted me up countless times since that day and provides me the exact medicine I need when I am feeling discouraged.

Thankfully the conversation happened and I continue to receive its afterglow of grace and self-love.

Instead of worrying about “what if it didn’t happen” I am choosing to shift my focus to receiving the continuing gifts from the fact it did happen. Every conversation, every connection is a gift.

Every conversation is a gift.

Every connection is a gift.

Now, receive the gift.

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming in soon!

To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.Facebooktwitterpinterest

Now Begin Again: How to Find Success Through Rewriting Your Life Narrative

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One of my weaknesses is borne from one of my strengths.

I create so vigorously and so often I forget what I write – and in so doing I lose a lot of the depth that seeks to be birthed.

A little less than a month ago I decided I wanted to work on rewriting my life narrative. I wanted to intentionally rework some of the messages I believed from my past in order to create a present and future that is more aligned with who I am, more aligned with my core beliefs.

Ultimately, I sought to merge my core beliefs with my unique gifts and talents to create a body of work – in this case a life and a sustainable income – that matters to myself and to others in the world as well.

While flowing in some areas, I felt hopelessly blocked in others. Reworking my narrative vigorously and openly seemed to be the best path.

I started along the journey and almost quickly as I started I stopped.

It wasn’t a big. dramatic stop with brake marks from my tires left on the road, it was just quietly not continuing because… perhaps the coffee finished brewing or a child made a request or I got a notification from Instagram or who knows what but I got distracted.

Note: this is a common practice, too, right on the verge of breakthrough I have a tendency to veer off course. I know this about myself. It doesn’t mean I always act accordingly in response.

The rest of this brief chapter I’m writing will right that practice. It is interesting to note in re-reading what I just started to edit and mold less than five days ago  I can’t recognize when it is is the seven-years-ago me “speaking” and when it is the just several days ago me “speaking”.

Today, I realize that isn’t the part of the story that matters.

I also realize this preface is taking on a life of its own which isn’t necessarily fruitful, another way block shows up. Let’s get to it.

Let’s explore the originating story now.

On this path to rewriting a damaging narrative, I have been reviewing content from the past and fusing those stories with the light of what I now know to be true.

This morning I read a seven-year-old blog post wherein I wished about having and themes of grace (a topic of exploration scheduled this week) and the be-do-have coaching formula which popped into my head and thoughts last night as I drove. I had no recollection of the relationship of “I wish” with “Be-do-have” – the seven-years-ago me is once again reminding me how smart I was and am.

The final synchronicity was in the opening paragraph. It overflowed with woundedness – both writing wounds and be-ing wounds: when people who matter to you reflect your being is somehow not good enough or is otherwise ugly or unwanted. Read now from 2010:

 “As I prepare to write my Wishcasting entry, I can’t help but hear a chorus of voices from my past, intoning slight variations along the theme of “You just can’t do anything in a small way, can you?”

In my mind’s eye  the “small way” tended to include either a facial or a vocal jeer or both and I always ended up feeling somehow less than even if I had accomplished something unique, visionary or just more out there than most people are comfortable with, but the jeers left a lasting scar on my psyche. That scarred kid doesn’t want to post my wish, doesn’t want to admit the lengthy process I took to getting to my wish because other people who made wishes  simply dove right sharing their wishes without risking life, limb or burning down your homes.

My end-of-2017 self reappears writing:

I wish to have a sense of peace that comes from abundance, from prosperity of the tangible kind – like my wish to have cash flow in and out, out and in, from multiple sources. My specific wish for a long, long time has been $25,000 dollars in and out, out and in, coming in from purchases of my products and services, flowing out to invest in making the world a better place and continually, infinitely repeating this joyful, deliberate practice.

I smile into that thought, feeling my fingers as they continue to tap even after I almost stopped – my limiting beliefs were about to hijack my fingers so instead I will intone.

I wish, I wish, I wish and I willfully intentionally lovingly agree to take action toward this image of actively manifesting and taking steps toward this wish coming to fruition. Further, I will continually, infinitely repeat this joyful, deliberate practice.

I will trust this process.

I wish to have the sense of peace that arrives on the wings of plenty and extends beyond one’s heart. I wish to move beyond an illusion and concept into reality. The birds begin to sing out my window. My heart smiles as my fingers continue to type.

I will wish in a big way because I am a big, larger than life persona. This isn’t a bad thing to be hidden, this is a fun, festive reality. Nowhere did “offensively large and loud” pop into this writing. Those people who jeer when they spoke to me of disdain were actually reflecting their own jeers at themselves, not at me or my hopes and dreams and plans. Whoever these people were – they live only in my past and may not harm or influence me now.

I wish to feel satisfied and content with the progress I make as I take action willfully toward this wish coming to fruition. This hunger I feel in my belly is the delightful recognition of alignment.

And today, Sunday, December 17, 2017 I will devote myself to repeating the key points of this chapter of my life narrative:

I trust abundance flows in the space where value is received from taking aligned, intentional loving action using my unique gifts and talents. My scars and wounds are part of the curvy road map to my most satisfying here, now and future. I trust my process, I trust in my resilience, I trust in the collaborative process of restoration and in rewriting this narrative I reclaim and rebirth my Self.

(And I can even laugh at the desire to say “This is a draft and I claim the right to continue to draft as necessary.)

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed media artist whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming soon!

 To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at 661.444.2735.

 

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Love for Systems and Structures: The Artist’s Dream Companion for Success

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“What sorts of systems and structures may I put into place that will support me and not feel like a noose around my neck?”

What makes a system?

What makes a structure?

What makes me think of them as a negative or something I don’t want?

I love mission statements, I enjoy guidelines, what makes me feel like I’m being strangled is this:

The first time I was witness and a victim of a “according to procedure 467.3” mentality I had recently lost Marlena. I had taken on a job as a Program Manager at a home for the developmentally disabled. It was the start of my getting underpaid for my work because I was holding on by a thread and needed to keep holding on and it felt like the best I could do.

This man (The one speaking about procedures and repeatedly parroting them back to me) was a bumbling bureaucrat, former state employee. He had worked at the dreaded state hospital my mind always told “avoid, avoid, avoid” and then he did the droning on about numbers and “the state the state the state” was something of a God at that place I worked and that was a natural turn off and fear inducer for me.

I remember being sick over that stupid, didn’t pay enough job.

I remember when I was stressing out about something and Katherine jerked in my belly and I freaked out more. I was literally in a chronic state of fear, a chronic state of “I am risking the worst pain in my life in order to have something really great but damn I feel like I myself am on the verge of death all the time!”

He was tall, on the edge of portly and was losing his hair.

He wore glasses. He bent his neck when he looked down at me and droned on about whatever whatchamacallit he was worshipping.
I wonder how many times my subconscious mind said, “I will never be like that blow hard, I will never, ever EVER be like that blow hard.”

He was a caricature of a small time good ol’ boy and therefore to be avoided at all costs.

I saw him as systems and structures personified.

Note to self: this bumbling bureaucrat was NOT systems and structures personified, he was a buffoon.

  • Let go of him as a representation of systems and structures – which are in place to support you – and start recreating your relationship with systems and structures which will keep your vision alive:
  • spiritual practices (Gratitude, Art, Meditation, Prayer)
  • timed writing daily
  • a calendar to keep track of appointments and tasks for long, medium and short term
  • a daily list of 5 passionate possibilities written the day prior.

These are systems that nurture and nourish.

These are structures upon which you may build your sustainable transformed life.Facebooktwitterpinterest

Note to Self (and to YOU, reading.) Continue: When All Else is…..

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Note to self and to you: when all else feels like it is failing, all I need to do is this:

Right now, as a vibrant member of the human community I choose to….continue. To grow, to feel, to express, to love, to seek understanding and compassion. Reminding oneself, daily, of wonder right in front of us.

Here is what happened when I reviewed a line of Diane Ackerman’s poem, SCHOOL PRAYER and used it as a writing prompt. The actual visual prompt is beneath my writing for YOU to use. Also below is a video I created as a result of this writing.

I offer myself as a messenger of wonder –

How do I do this?

I open my mouth.

I open my mouth and I speak what is in front of me.

I open my mouth and I speak the details of what is in front of me – the lines, the light, the way the lines and light reach back to me and fill my hand with energy that ignites my muse and makes my fingers push the keys that become these words and further the process in an infinite loop de loop when someone else lifts her or his or their chin and sees… oh, the plug.. oh the chord into the plug that makes the light turn on. The switch. I hear the click, I see the light turn on and suddenly I notice…

And the a-ha’s flow because people say “I never saw it like that, I never thought of it like that, I never… until now and suddenly the plug becomes an object of wonder and curiosity and we appreciate those who created the plug and the lamp and our heartbeat joins their heartbeat and the collective heartbeat and….

In what ways am I currently a messenger of wonder?

Here. Now. This. You. Look. Listen. Translate. Taste. Touch. Cry when you feel it, laugh when you feel it. Feel free and stand with it, allow yourself to hold onto that fearful moment with the same gentle tenderness as you hold onto a first kiss or a first bite of the most incredible taste ever (pesto, dark chocolate, pear brandy come to mind) and then….. recognize the divinity of that moment and….

How would I like to further my message of wonder in the world?

Increase the people I interact with and who appreciate what I am up to… invite them in. Cherish their them-ness. Reflect this beauty of humanity so the static will be silence and the pure breath and tone and light and harmony and dissonance and choking and relaxing back into presence flows….

Right now, as a message of wonder in my world I choose to….continue.

And now it is your turn: write about being a messenger of wonder in your unique way. Splash words and images freely on the page. Ready? Here’s your prompt:

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Goal Playing: Let’s Make Reaching Our Goals More Fun (and Productive!)

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There is a tendency to forget we have the capacity to make nearly anything and everything fun. Note to self: remember to make this fun and share that giddy, goofy, get-it-done energy with others.

I realized somewhere along my journey of today that I create and reach towards goals much like a child bounces a ball against
the school yard pavement or a child-artist moves her paintbrush freely on a canvas.

I create goals and step into goals because I find it to be great fun.

In my life coaching work I have often suggested to my clients, “Ahh, just throw some spaghetti against the wall. Go ahead, try that out – it isn’t going to hurt anything! And besides, the process itself can be darn funny. Try it… shush, stop your hesitating and just
throw spaghetti!”

This has been so much a part of me that I didn’t even see the uniqueness in my approach.

I like setting wacky goals alongside my serious, world changing goals. You know. just for fun, not for anything else but the sheer joy of creating them and then inviting other “kids” to play along.

I can easily get into the zone when I am being childlike.

Am I possessed or obsessed? No, I am playful.

I am being the otter, sliding around the water, barking and clapping my hands.

I am the monkey, swinging from the branches, hopping over to my friend and running my hands through her fur coat, inviting her to swing with me.

I am the preschooler, carrying toy kitchen accessories around the room, delegating roles, “I am the Mommy, you are the daddy, you are the sister, the brother, the other sister, and you are the puppy” and when the other sister would rather be the Aunt Millie, I shrug, and smile and ok and when the puppy gets bored and wants to build with blocks, I smile and wave her away to go have fun doing something else.

No attachment, no worry, no hurt feelings, no drama or added meaning.

To me my goals provide crystal clear, joy-filled play.

Here’s a surprise – for some of you.

Our world changing, deeply serious goals may be brought into reality more quickly and effectively if we play with them first.

Seriously play.

Natalie Angier wrote “along with love and a good joke, playfulness seems like something that should not be explained, a brilliant splash of animated joy so sheerly pleasurable to watch and engage in that it is its own justification.”

To me, goal creation, goal reaching, goal tweaking and goal realization fit those words perfectly.

How about you – want to come along with me? Want to wrap yourself up in a costume of choice as we create something engaging and fun?

Come on, you know you do.

I can see that shy or sly grin crossing your face. See my ball, bouncing its way towards you?

Reach for it – your goal, my goal – unattached, joy-filled, possible, passionate.

So glad you are here, playing, creating, being with me right now.

Listen for a little while longer for the specific steps to make the biggest difference for you.

It would be so easy to stick our fingers in our ears and sing so we wouldn’t “hear” the prompting of goals, to-do’sa. What if we were deaf to the forward movement required to bring to life our intentions, dreams, vision, mission, whatever-title-you-choose-to-name-that-‘thing’-that-pulls-you-forward.

This may be a day when you have several “must-do’s” on your agenda, like my friend Shirley did when other people’s request piled up and fun didn’t feel at all possible.

This is a good chance to invoke the Heart/Mind/Goal Game Drizzle.

Even when Shirley was babysitting her grandson at 9 for a couple hours or so, meeting her friends for a play at 6:30ish depending upon the needs of the rest of her family she could make it fun and productive with minimal effort.

Why? Because none of these tasks interfered with her brain/heart drizzle, a fun companion activity to stir up that day or any day.
One of the grand things about this plan is I don’t have to complete it today and if I somehow slip up, I can return at any time on any day and claim a do-over and simply begin again. I can’t think of anything that soothes me more to know right now.

Here’s how the Drizzle Works:

1. Close your eyes and put your right hand over your heart.

2. Take a couple nice deep breaths, focused on clearing out any traces of negativity you may be feeling.

3. With your eyes closed and your negativity cleared, ask yourself silently, “What would be the best choices for me to make this month in order to reach my goals (be a good mother, make the world a better place, contribute to my community, get into better shape, put whichever fits the best for you here.)?

4. Allow yourself to continue to breathe in silence for even just 15 seconds.

5. Go about your day and when you think of it, repeat the question either silently or aloud.

6. Be aware of any thoughts that come into your awareness throughout the day that relate back to your initial question. To make this step extra fun, I’ve been known to actually shout-out “Thank you!” which made my children laugh when they were little. Now it makes me laugh with me.

7. At night, sit with your notebook or a big sheet of paper and write or doodle whatever comes up without pre-thinking or forcing it, just ask the question again and let yourself go onto the paper.

8. Let the continued questioning and heart opening and playful energy drizzle your loving, playful plan into being without effort, without angst and with heaps of joyful celebration.

9. Repeat these steps for up to three days to create a firm foundation for your goals (or whatever you want to name them) for your next week, month or quarter.

Shirley devised a life changing plan the last time she took on the Heart-Mind-Drizzle Goal Play. Now it’s your turn.

I help people – mostly creative entrepreneurs or those who hope to become creative entrepreuneurs, like Shirley and life you – to end writers blocks and barriers to communication by providing methods and means to allow their words to flow, finally, freely and without judgment.

We then take that they’ve written by using the #5for5BrainDump method I created – writing a mere five minutes a day for five days a week – to become a “something” tangible. It might be an article or blog post or a poem or a chapter of a book or a screenplay or a sales letter. It might be a Ted Talk or a way to start a conversation with a lover or a business partner. It might just be what it is – a stream of consciousness ramble that eventually morphs into a bridge to that place the writer has always dreamed of being but she didn’t know ever existed so she was unable to put it into words until… she did.

We continue to build on this “something” together either with me one-on-one or in a larger community of creative entrepreneurs – and in time, a new Creative Life is born.

The people who work with me, these creative entrepreneurs, discover a place where they fit in and are appreciated. It is so fun to watch the smiles spread across their faces and their words to rain in gusty storms like monsoons and sometimes just a slow, sweet mist… and at times… the sunshine takes over and we rest and bask in it.

Sometimes what we start with is not at all what we eventually create, but this new Creative Life – and the way it feels, remains strong and firm and delectable.

Each one uniquely quirky, each one jagged and smooth, whole hearted and angry – content, happy-sad, morbid and silly.

Light and dark and back and forth again.

All of this written from a prompt from a blog post I wrote in 2007 in a time of deep sadness:

“In order for the moonflower to completely open, it has to bathe in darkness. I am not a big fan of the dark. It scares me. Still. Yet I can not walk by this flower without bowing to it, without putting my face close to its opened-by-the-dark heart.”

Julie Jordan Scott inspires people to experience artistic rebirth via her programs, playshops, books, performances and simply being herself out in the world.  She is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy-extraordinaire and mixed-media artist  whose Writing Camps and Writing Playgrounds permanently transform people’s creative lives. Watch for the announcement of new programs coming soon.

  To contact Julie to schedule a Writing or Creative Life Coaching Session, call or text her at .

  Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing. 

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